Application software?

• Application software uses the operating system software and

provides the real functionality of a computer.

Applications include:

Example

Microsoft Office
Games
Graphics
Financial

1
Language Software?

 Machine Language (0,1)

 Low Level Languages (Assembly)
 High Level Languages (C++, VB, Java)
 Fourth Generation (FoxPro, MySQL)
 Fifth Generation (V Basic, V C, V Java)

• Utility Software
• Anti Viruses
• Defragmentation
• Scandisk
• Disk Cleanup
2
Trouble Shooting
1:
• The first major resource that you can use for troubleshooting a
problem is your own brain.

• Your brain can hold lots of information. We remember almost

everything we’re exposed to.

• For this reason, the best troubleshooters are usually the people
who have been exposed to the most problems. They have seen
several different types of problems and their solutions.

• If they run into a particular problem, they may have seen it

before and can quickly fix the problem.
2:
• Service documentation is another important intellectual resource, and
we might point out that it’s not used as often as it should be.

• As soon as a new product is released, several things are released at

the same time. like the owner’s manual, the buyer’s guide, and (most
importantly) the service and replacement parts manuals.

• These books can be a valuable source of troubleshooting information.

They can also contain replacement parts information, such as which
part(s) should be replaced when a particular component is found to be
bad.

• Also, they usually contain exploded diagrams of the model being

repaired.
3:
• The Internet, of course, has become an extremely
valuable resource for troubleshooting.

• Almost every technology company now has a Web site.

• One feature of most companies’ Web sites is the

“knowledge base,

• an area that contains several pieces of information that

can be very valuable to technicians working with its
products.
• First of all, the knowledge base usually contains one or more Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQ) files.

• The files are summaries of the questions that technical support

technicians get and their answers.

• Second, this is a good place to look for reports of “bugs” that have been
discovered or suspected in the company’s products.

• You may have to go to the company’s support page to ask your question
directly or perform a search on the knowledge base or FAQ to
determine if there’s a specific question or problem that relates to your
situation,

• but in many cases, a problem you’re spending time trying to solve has
already been solved by someone else and reported.
3:

Another intellectual resource that is seldom used,

except in the most difficult cases, is a coworker.

 Troubleshooting

These items fall into two categories:

hardware and software

• There are several hardware resources you can use in the

troubleshooting process.

• First, you have your computer toolkit. When

troubleshooting, though, the only tools you should really
need from the toolkit are the ones for removing the case,
because most troubleshooting is done with the
computer on and “as is”
• Another example of a hardware resource is a
resource discovery expansion card

• These cards, when installed into any

expansion slot, will tell you what resources are
being used in the computer and will indicate
any possible conflicts.

• Several companies make these cards.

 Software Troubleshooting
• More than half of all computer problems are software related.

• The problems usually don’t stem from the software itself, but
rather the interaction of that software with other software that
may be running on that machine.

• However, before you can start troubleshooting, you must

determine if the problem is hardware related or software related.

• In order to determine the source of a problem (hardware or

software), you have a few things you can do to narrow it down:

• 32 Bit printer driver in Win 64bit

1.
• In Windows computers, boot the computer
“clean.”
• Booting it “clean” means starting the computer
with no software drivers loading.
• You can boot “clean” by using a bootable USB disk.
• If the computer functions normally, then the
problem is usually software related, although it
could be a hardware problem and the device
driver just enabled the device, causing the conflict
to show itself.
2.
• Check the operating system error messages

• Every operating system has built-in error-detection routines. These

routines are designed to intercept problems and notify the user.

• If there is a major problem, these routines will display an error

message for the software or hardware component that caused the
problem.

• For example, when you try to print to a printer connected to your

primary parallel port (LPT1) and the system returns an
• error like “Error writing to device LPT1,” that is more than likely a
hardware-related problem because a hardware device was
mentioned in the error message.
3.
• Uninstall and then reinstall the application that’s having problems.

• This ensures that you have the correct version of all the application’s
components and that there are no missing files that may be required by
the application.

• (For example, many applications today are intelligent enough to tell you
when they’re missing a necessary file to complete an operation—perhaps
a spell-checker’s dictionary files, or a library of programming objects, or
even a file created by a coworker but stored in the wrong place on the
network. The solution to this problem is very simple: If the missing
• file is a program file, reinstall that program from the original disks. Or, if
the file is a data file, restore the data file from a backup.)

• Skype
 Hardware Troubleshooting
• When you’re troubleshooting hardware, there
are a few common problems
• that any experienced technician should know
about.
• These common problems usually have simple
solutions.

• Knowing these problems (and their respective

solutions) will make you a more efficient
troubleshooter.
 POST Routines
• The first item we’re going to discuss isn’t really
a hardware problem, but a hardware
• troubleshooting aid.

• Every computer has a diagnostic program built

into its BIOS called the power on self-test
(POST). When you turn on the computer, it
executes this set of diagnostics. These tests go
by pretty quickly, so we’ll detail
• them here.
• 1. The processor is tested. POST runs checks on
the CPU. If the tests fail, the system stops with
no error message (usually).

• 2. The ROMs are checked. POST computes a

check BIOS ROMs. If the check do not match,
the system halts with no error message.

• 3. The Interrupt controller is checked. If there

is a problem with this component,
• the system will give a long beep, then a short
beep, then the system will stop.
• 5. The system timing chip is tested. This is not the chip
that tells time, but rather the chip that provides timing
signals for the bus and processor. If this chip fails, the
system will give a long beep, then a short beep, then halt.
.
• 6. The video card is checked. At this point the system runs
the diagnostics for the video card. If it fails, the system
issues one long beep and two short beeps and halts.

• If successful, the video ROM BIOS is copied into RAM and

you will usually see a message about the type of video
card that the computer is using.
• 9. RAM is counted and tested. The system tests and counts all RAM
that’s installed in the machine.

• A failure during this portion of the POST will generate a “201

Memory Error” message on the screen.

• (Here’s a free tip for you: Any POST error numbers starting with 2
are memory-related errors.)

• 10. The keyboard is tested. The keyboard controller is contacted

and signals are sent to detect the presence of a keyboard.

• If this test fails, a “301 — Keyboard Failure” error is generated

• along with a short beep. Some systems may halt, others may not.
(Some systems also ask you to press the F1 key, which is kind of silly
if the keyboard isn’t working, huh?)
• 12. Test floppy drives.

• If there are problems, a “601 — Floppy Disk”

error is generated
• 13. Check resources and boot the computer.

• The POST routine queries any remaining devices (LPT ports, serial ports,
etc.),

• If an operating system can’t be found, most systems will

• issue an “Operating system not found” error (or something to that effect).

• The POST routines are a great tool for troubleshooting. They will usually give
English descriptions of any problems that they find.

• Some BIOS POST routines may actually give suggestions on how to fix the
problem (don’t expect this kind of friendliness on an IBM AT, though; it only
gives cryptic error codes).

• Tables 10.1 and 10.2 summarize the POST beep and error codes,
respectively, most often seen on computers today.
Common POST Beep Codes